Polis Expansion and Elite Power in Hellenistic Karia - (Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World) by Jeremy Labuff (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book synthesizes the history of Hellenistic Karia and offers new interpretations for the motives behind cases of sympoliteia, or the merging of city-states, in the region. This study presents new readings of inscriptional evidence, nuancing our understanding of the dynami...

Book Synopsis

This book synthesizes the history of Hellenistic Karia and offers new interpretations for the motives behind cases of sympoliteia, or the merging of city-states, in the region. This study presents new readings of inscriptional evidence, nuancing our understanding of the dynamics of democracy in the Hellenistic period.

Review Quotes

[This book] focuses on the fascinating area of Hellenistic Caria, perhaps the region with the strongest continuities between the fourth century and the Hellenistic period. This is a significant contribution to the study of the Greek poleis, which is usually dominated by an image of the polis as a selfenclosed entity and in which Hellenistic poleis rarely provide food for thought for those scholars focusing on the archaic and classical periods.... But what distinguishes it from the usual dossier of Hellenistic inscriptions is the wider argument that focuses on the dominant role of the elites of Hellenistic communities as the major beneficiaries - economically, politically, and socially - from the processes of polis expansion. This focus on the divergent agency of different groups within ancient communities is a significant contribution that should make us rethink the usual polarities that we employ in the study of archaic and classical poleis (e.g. the polis versus the aristocracy).

Questions about changes in the political culture of Greek poleis in the Hellenistic period, the role of democratic institutions, of elite authority, power, and the impact of kings have long engaged historians. Looking through the lens of a concentrated, scrupulous study of the evidence for inter-polis unions called sympoliteiai in Karia, Jeremy LaBuff offers a nuanced and illuminating new take on both the meaning of this institution in the Hellenistic world and an important contribution to the larger debates about change in the political culture of the Hellenistic world. Particularly important are his efforts to tease out the multiplicity of interests at work and his insistence on the crucial role of local conditions. Polis Expansion and Elite Power in Hellenistic Karia will appeal then not only to experts in southwestern Asia Minor in the Hellenistic period but also to historians working broadly on the transformations the Greek world underwent from the Classical to Hellenistic period.

About the Author

Jeremy LaBuff is lecturer of history at Northern Arizona University.